Month: May 2025

World class equipment and services company, CNH, has released its 2024 Sustainability Report.

The report highlights how it worked to support its customers, employees and communities last year.

The report outlines CNH’s commitment to sustainability in projects such as conducting 78 energy-saving initiatives that resulted in further significant reductions its energy consumption and CO2 emissions. CNH also made great strides in renewable electricity adoption – which now accounts for 70.4% of the company’s total electricity use.

Read the full report here.

World class equipment and services company, CNH, has released its 2024 Sustainability Report.

The report highlights how it worked to support its customers, employees and communities last year.

The report outlines CNH’s commitment to sustainability in projects such as conducting 78 energy-saving initiatives that resulted in further significant reductions its energy consumption and CO2 emissions. CNH also made great strides in renewable electricity adoption – which now accounts for 70.4% of the company’s total electricity use.

Read the full report here.

Published by Action Against Hunger.

Contact media@actionagainsthunger.org for inquiries.

NEW YORK and BEIRUT, May 27, 2025 /3BL/ – Despite hopes for peace after a ceasefire agreement six months ago in November 2024 in Lebanon, military activity remains intense in southern parts of the country, the Bekaa Valley and southern suburbs of Beirut. Around 90,000 people remain internally displaced, and nearly 1.2 million suffer from high levels of food insecurity. The civilian population remains at high risk, and recent attacks have targeted populated areas, further endangering lives and livelihoods.

“One of the last air strikes was on 8 May,” explains Suzanne Takkenberg, director of Action Against Hunger in Lebanon. “On that day, there were more than 19 attacks in the space of an hour in southern Lebanon, close to our distribution points, forcing us to temporarily halt our activities.”

1 in 6 people Cannot Return Home

According to the International Organization for Migration, approximately 90,000 people remain internally displaced in Lebanon. While over 900,000 people have returned to their communities, many have found their homes uninhabitable. Families are forced to live in borrowed flats or rent temporary housing, and the risks of unexploded ordnance and violence remain.

One such displaced person is Ali (name changed for safety). Ali’s home was completely destroyed, and he lost his job due to the conflict. He had no choice but to flee. Like hundreds of others, Ali took refuge at the emergency shelter in Bir Hassan School in south Beirut, where now, eight months later, he remains.

Displaced people like Ali struggle to access clean water, healthcare, and sanitation. “Displacement, extraordinary increases in the cost of living, interruptions in food supply, loss of livelihoods and damage to water and sanitation infrastructure are some of the barriers that prevent civilians from meeting their most basic needs,” said Takkenberg.

Agriculture and Food Crisis 

According to the latest UN report on food security in Lebanon, nearly 1.2 million people, including Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians suffer from high levels of acute food insecurity despite the ceasefire. The situation is mainly due to the protracted impact of the conflict, continued forced population displacement, and the deep economic crisis of recent years.

The livelihoods of families, especially those who make their living from agriculture, have been severely impacted. According to the World Bank, damage to the agricultural sector is estimated at a minimum of $11 billion in losses since the start of the conflict in October 2023. The border area was one of the worst affected during the escalation of the conflict.

Jaafar, a farmer in Beit Lif, a predominantly agricultural region along the border with Israel, says that “because of the drones, everyone is afraid. All the land and all the fields are destroyed in this area in the south. The trees have either been uprooted or damaged.” Beit Lif’s population used to be 7,000, but now only 125 remain as lack of access to fertilizer, water, and fuel makes land cultivation nearly impossible.

Mahmoud, a displaced person from Odaisseh says, “There is no life. There are no plants. There is nothing left.” He has been living with his family for over a year and a half and cannot return home due to the level of destruction. “We didn’t expect the conflict to last so long, so we didn’t bring many things with us. If humanitarian organizations stopped working here, it would be like leaving us at the mercy of the desert,” he concludes.

Action Against Hunger’s Humanitarian Response 

“Many families are struggling to afford essential food items, and food insecurity is widespread. The most urgent needs include emergency shelter, access to clean water, hygiene kits, and sanitation facilities,” explains Suzanne Takkenberg. “Damage to water and sanitation infrastructures makes it very difficult for families to return home permanently. The risk of waterborne diseases remains high. The efforts of humanitarian organizations are crucial to protect the well-being and dignity of those affected.”

Action Against Hunger is providing emergency support in Beirut, the Bekaa, Baalbek-Hermel, Nabatiyeh, and southern Lebanon. Activities include:

• Distributing food, clean water, blankets, mattresses, and hygiene kits
• Supporting collective shelters like Bir Hassan School
• Offering health services and nutritional support
• Rehabilitating farmland and water infrastructure
• Delivering cash assistance to displaced and returning families

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Action Against Hunger leads the global movement to end hunger. We innovate solutions, advocate for change, and reach 21 million people every year with proven hunger prevention and treatment programs. As a nonprofit that works across over 55 countries, our 8,900 dedicated staff members partner with communities to address the root causes of hunger, including climate change, conflict, inequity, and emergencies. We strive to create a world free from hunger, for everyone, for good.

May 27, 2025 /3BL/ – In its 50th anniversary year, Traditional Medicinals and its nonprofit arm, the Traditional Medicinals Foundation, have together invested more than $275,000 to increase access to high-quality herbal wellness. This includes $75,000 in grants to community-based nonprofits and over $200,000 toward
consumer-facing herbal education and awareness.

Rooted in the belief that wellness should be a right, not a luxury, Herbs for All launches with two cornerstone programs:

Planting Wellness: Through the Traditional Medicinals Foundation, this grant program supports grassroots organizations delivering culturally relevant herbal education and care. Initial recipients include Oko Farms (Brooklyn, NY), a leader in environmental justice and herbal workshops, and The Botanical Bus (Sonoma County, CA), which provides bilingual, community-led wellness services.

Plant Wisdom Collective: A new digital education platform created by Traditional Medicinals, this free video series explores the art, science, and traditions of herbalism. Led by in-house herbalists and scientists, the platform offers interactive learning tools and consumer resources to support informed, everyday plant-based wellness.

“These investments reflect our long-standing commitment to making herbal wellness more accessible, especially for communities that have been historically excluded from it,” said Jamie Horst, Chief Purpose Officer. “Herbs for All is how we honor the plant wisdom we’ve learned from and help share it more widely.”

Herbs for All brings together Traditional Medicinals’ purpose-driven sourcing, community investment, and herbal education into one unifying vision for a more equitable and inclusive wellness future.

Learn more: www.traditionalmedicinals.com/pages/plant-wisdom-collective

Originally published on SaportaReport
By Maria Saporta

The Chattahoochee Nature Center (CNC), a focal point to invite people to experience the natural environment and the Chattahoochee River, has launched a $9.6 million capital campaign to make the center even more welcoming.

The campaign will fund several projects to make CNC more open and more inviting to both young people and adults.

Other major donors include $1 million from the James M. Cox Foundation, $250,000 from the Waterfall Foundation, $160,000 from the Georgia Power Foundation, $328,000 from the Tony Parker family, $100,000 from Judy and Walter Hoyt, $75,000 from the Koch/Georgia-Pacific Foundation as well as $558,000 from CNC’s board of trustees and $500,000 from Fulton County.

Continue reading here.

Hershey

By Mark Taylor
Senior Director of Strategic Sourcing

Key Takeaways:

• Hershey is focused on sourcing responsibly and smartly so that we can make our products and grow our business for another 130 years. 
• Despite signs pointing to a cocoa surplus, prices remain volatile and disconnected from physical market realities.
• Our team are always exploring a variety of purchasing options that mean we can provide the products our consumers love at a price that keeps them accessible.

In my years in this industry, I’ve never witnessed a cocoa market quite like the one we’re experiencing today. Every day, we see more bombastic headlines that chocolate is at risk due to cocoa supply shortages and sky-high prices. These headlines are greatly exaggerated of course, but the volatility, price swings, and market dynamics we’re seeing are truly unprecedented, and I wanted to share some thoughts on what’s happening and how we at Hershey are responding.

The Far-Reaching Impact of Cocoa Prices

The reality is that high cocoa prices profoundly affect our entire sector. Price has become a critical consideration for everyone—businesses, customers and consumers alike. Across the board, high prices due to inflation are impacting consumer demand, as people make tough choices about their spending. Throughout the snacking industry, companies must find creative ways to manage costs so that we can provide the products our consumers love at a price that keeps them accessible.

Today’s cocoa market is not healthy, and while external pressures like adverse weather conditions and crop disease continue, current levels of volatility are not a reasonable reflection of those impacts. The outlook is far more nuanced. While some regions face challenges with productivity, others are increasing their output. In fact, the 2024-25 year is expected to see the first surplus in four years, given factors such as:

• Production in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana is up from last year’s challenges, with arrivals currently up 20%
• Cocoa origins outside these traditional powerhouses are growing quickly and now make up roughly half of global supply
• Growth in these alternative sourcing regions is pacing at more than 10% versus the previous year

A Disconnect Between Financial and Physical Markets

All these factors should be contributing to a moderation in price. Yet, paradoxically, we continue to experience an extremely volatile cocoa market with high prices and swings that seem to defy the fundamental market outlook.

At Hershey, we’re increasingly concerned that the cocoa exchanges are dysfunctional due to a lack of liquidity. The intent of commodity exchanges is to provide an orderly and fair method for buyers and sellers to achieve price transparency and hedge risk. However, we’re observing a troubling disconnect—while cocoa bean prices in origin countries have fallen, prices on the exchange often move in the opposite direction.

We believe action can be taken to dampen the volatility, improve liquidity and ensure that the exchange can again perform its primary function of being an effective risk management tool for the sector.

Building a Resilient Supply Chain

While high cocoa prices impact our operations and require extreme agility, Hershey remains committed to building a resilient cocoa supply chain.

Our purpose is to Make More Moments of Goodness. This means that we believe that chocolate should be affordable and accessible. For this to continue to be possible, as an industry we must drive efficiency, resiliency and sustainability to ensure that consumers can continue to enjoy chocolate for decades to come.

We recognize a fundamental truth: without successful farmers, food businesses could not succeed. Equally, without successful businesses, there would be significantly less investment in farmers and sustainable practices.

Through Cocoa For Good, our sustainable cocoa strategy, we are making a multi-year $500 million investment, which we are busy putting to work. We have already invested more than half of that, and we’ve made an additional $40 million commitment to improving farmer livelihoods with our Hershey Income Accelerator Program, which we’re expanding this year.

The Path Forward: Collaboration

We believe the way forward requires thoughtful collaboration. Many companies, including Hershey, have made significant investments to strengthen the cocoa supply chain, and this work must continue.

It’s important to recognize that the cocoa supply chain is global, and each origin may require different solutions. There is no silver bullet or one-size-fits-all approach. What we’ve learned through years of experience is that creating lasting change requires a holistic approach:

• Working with governments on necessary public sector actions to foster healthy markets and support farmers
• Consistent action from companies, suppliers, and others in the private sector
• Bringing in expert implementation partners from the NGO sector to take proven, data-backed steps

In these unprecedented times, our commitment to creating a resilient cocoa supply chain remains unwavering. By working together across the entire value chain, we can navigate these challenges and build a stronger future for cocoa—from farmer to consumer.

UPDATE: May 19, 2025

Community Support Update

T-Mobile teams continue to help communities stay connected in St. Louis, Missouri. We are currently offering free Wi-Fi and device charging at two local Fire Departments. Community members — including first responders — are welcome to stop by anytime. The locations will be open 24 hours a day but may change.

• St. Louis Fire Department Engine House 26. Address: 4520 Margaretta Ave., St. Louis, MO 63115
• St. Louis Fire Department Engine House 28. Address: 4810 Enright Ave., St. Louis, MO 63108

 

UPDATE: May 18, 2025

Community Support Update

T-Mobile teams are on the ground in St. Louis, Missouri helping communities stay connected. We are currently offering free Wi-Fi and device charging. Community members — including first responders — are welcome to stop by anytime. The location will be open 24 hours a day but may change.

• Metro by T-Mobile retail store at Grand Blvd. Address: 1411 N Grand Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63106

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May 16, 2025 

T-Mobile is actively responding to and continues to monitor powerful storms that have brought tornadoes, damaging winds and widespread lightning to parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. This turbulent weather is expected to extend across the Great Plains and to the east coast.

Network Readiness 

T-Mobile’s network has held up well, with power outages leading to only minimal localized disruptions. In places where the network has had impacts, restoration efforts are underway. Permanent network hardening, including backup power and overlapping coverage, are helping to support the network. And our automation and AI-enabled Self-Organizing Network (SON) continues to help dynamically reroute traffic and maintain coverage while recovery continues.

We have activated our emergency teams who are deploying portable generators and providing refueling support to restore and maintain connectivity to impacted locations.

First Responder & Agency Coordination 

We are coordinating with emergency management agencies across the affected states to provide support as needed.

Community Support Readiness 

Our Community Support team is monitoring shelter and other needs. We remain ready to deploy portable Wi-Fi, charging stations and connectivity solutions if conditions require.

We will continue to monitor conditions and share updates as the situation evolves. Please visit T-Mobile Emergency Response. Follow the T-Mobile Newsroom on X and Instagram for the latest updates.

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If your facility manufactures, processes, or uses certain toxic chemicals, you may be required to report to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). TRI is not just a regulatory obligation – it’s a transparency tool that informs the public and helps facilities improve their environmental performance.

In a recent webinar entitled, “Toxic Release Inventory Reporting: A Q&A with Kara and Friends,” Kara Van Blarcum, CESCO, Antea Group’s Waste and Materials Management Service Line Leader, led a conversation with Jason Lagowski, CPG, Senior Consultant; Mike Pauli, Water Management Service Line Leader; and Tony Rossano, Senior Manager, on this subject.

This blog recaps the webinar and breaks down the key requirements, recent updates, and common compliance pitfalls to help you prepare for the July 1, 2025, reporting deadline for the 2024 calendar year.

Watch On-Demand

What Is TRI and Why Does It Matter? 

TRI reporting is mandated under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), which was enacted in 1986 in response to major chemical disasters in Bhopal, India, and Institute, West Virginia. TRI aims to provide communities with information about the presence and release of toxic chemicals in their area.

Unlike Tier II reporting, which tracks hazardous chemicals stored onsite, TRI focuses on the release and management of specific chemicals that exceed reporting thresholds.

TRI data is publicly available, which means accuracy and transparency are critical—for both compliance and reputation management.

Do TRI Requirements Apply to You? 

A facility must meet all three criteria to be subject to TRI:

1. Employee Threshold: 10 or more full-time employee equivalents (about 20,000 work hours per year).
2. NAICS Code Coverage: Your primary industry code must be on EPA’s list of covered sectors (e.g., manufacturing, utilities, mining, etc.).
3. Chemical Use: You manufacture, process, or otherwise use a TRI-listed chemical above the reporting threshold.

Thresholds by Activity: 

• 25,000 lbs. for chemicals manufactured or processed,
• 10,000 lbs. for chemicals otherwise used,
• 100 lbs. or less for Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxic (PBT) substances like lead or PFAS.

Common TRI Chemicals: 

• Metals and metal compounds (e.g., lead, copper)
• Nitric acid, ethylene glycol, solvents
• Diesel byproducts like naphthalene and polycyclic aromatic compounds
• Wastewater treatment chemicals
• Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)

Understanding Key Definitions 

• Manufactured: Intentionally produced, imported, or created during processes (e.g., ammonia generated during commercial baking).
• Processed: Incorporated into a product, blended, or packaged for distribution (e.g., solvents in paint).
• Otherwise Used: Utilized without being part of the final product (e.g., nitric acid in wastewater treatment).

Article Exemption: 

Articles like copper tubing or wire may be exempt from reporting—unless they are cut, melted, or ground in a way that releases TRI chemicals.

Calculating Releases: What Counts? 

If thresholds are exceeded, you must quantify how much was released or managed, including:

• Air emissions (stacks, fugitive)
• Wastewater discharges (from treatment systems)
• Stormwater runoff
• On-site disposal or treatment
• Off-site transfers (e.g., hazardous waste, scrap metal)

Tools used include: 

• Stack testing, water sampling data
• Waste manifests and profile sheets
• Material balance or engineering calculations

You’ll then report using Form R or Form A via the EPA’s TRI-MEweb platform on CDX.

TRI and PFAS: What’s New for RY 2025? 

PFAS reporting has evolved rapidly:

• 2020: PFAS first added to the TRI list
• 2024: EPA added 9 new PFAS compounds, including 7 PFOS variants
• De minimis exemption removed for all PFAS in 2024
• PFAS now designated as chemicals of special concern (PBTs)
• Form A no longer allowed for PFAS reporting—must use Form R

Currently, there are around 180 TRI-listed PFAS and that number is expected to grow. The current reporting threshold is 100 lbs., but future rules could reduce it to 10 lbs.

Many safety data sheets (SDSs) do not clearly list PFAS—screening tools or supplier outreach may be required.

Quick Look: Reporting Deadlines 

• July 1, 2025 – Reports due for calendar year 2024
• Use TRI-MEweb via EPA CDX
• All data is public, and EPA may follow up on year-over-year discrepancies

Common Audit Findings 

Antea Group’s audit teams frequently encounter these issues:

• Failure to Evaluate Applicability: Many facilities meet TRI criteria but have never assessed thresholds.
• Missed Releases: Things like fugitive lead from soldering or byproducts from wastewater processes (e.g., nitrate formation) are often overlooked.
• Misuse of Exemptions: Activities like wire grinding may invalidate the article exemption, triggering reportability.

Regular evaluations, good records, and updated SDS reviews are essential to avoid violations.

Frequently Asked Questions 

Q: We just learned we should’ve been reporting. Do we need to go back? 
A: Yes. TRI requires 5 years of historical review. It’s better to self-disclose than wait for EPA to flag missing reports.

Q: Are TRI chemicals listed on the SDS? 
A: Yes—check Section 15 and Section 3. But suppliers may delay updates, so verify CAS numbers against EPA’s TRI list.

Q: Is there a checklist to conduct an evaluation? 
A: There’s no universal template, but a good process includes:

• Reviewing your product inventory and SDSs,
• Calculating chemical usage and comparing against thresholds,
• Evaluating all potential release pathways (air, water, waste).

Q: How do I find my NAICS code and determine if it’s TRI-covered? 
A: Check your OSHA 300 log, EPA ECHO portal, or use an online SIC-to-NAICS crosswalk to see if you’ve ever reported it before. If not, you will need to review the NAICS list to determine which best matches with your operations. Then compare against EPA’s TRI-covered NAICS list.

Q: If my SDS doesn’t mention PFAS, should I keep looking? 
A: Yes. PFAS may be hidden under trade names or proprietary listings. Use screening tools or request supplier certifications.

Q: Do any states have separate TRI reporting? 
A: Massachusetts has a parallel program, the Toxic Use Reduction Act (TURA), requiring additional forms. All others follow federal TRI rules.

Q: Can I revise a TRI report if I find a mistake? 
A: Yes. Revisions can be made within five years via TRI-MEweb.

Q: If I move or close a facility, do I still report? 
A: Yes. If thresholds were exceeded at any point during the year, even a closed or relocated facility may require reporting.

Q: I exceeded the threshold but have no releases—do I still file? 
A: Yes. You must still submit a form—likely Form A, unless the chemical is a PBT or otherwise disqualified.

Final Thoughts 

TRI reporting is complex—but manageable with the right systems in place. Consistent tracking, supplier engagement, and periodic audits can help you stay ahead of evolving requirements, especially as PFAS and PBT oversight increases.

Do you need help with TRI applicability evaluations, report preparation, or PFAS disclosure? Reach out to Antea Group’s experts today to get guidance every step of the way.